


A Matter of Choice

by Anonymous



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, OR IS IT, maybe it's not so random, not today satan, randomly first person, the death isn't real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 16:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20548937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Byleth has a terrifyingly realistic nightmare that she's killed Edelgard





	A Matter of Choice

I knew it was just a bad dream, but it felt too real. I could feel the coarse wrappings on the handle of my blade eating into my palms as I gripped it, white knuckled and desperate. It held her and I together, because it had crushed her armor and bitten into her chest. The blood soaked my hands and the smell haunted me, even as I laid wide-eyed in bed, panting fervently to reclaim lost breath. Her words in my ears, the rattling of her final moments, seized me like claws of ice. She wilted over my sword—the flower that bloomed in spite of its surroundings and that ultimately fell prey to it. I felt the warmth fading from her body. She smiled at me even as I killed her, and it was a wonder how my screams didn’t penetrate the real world.

I loved her, and I had killed her.

Whose memories could these be, for I could never imagine something so horrid. I reached for my desk lamp, hoping to banish the thoughts with some light. While they never left, I felt mild comfort with my tiny beacon of warmth. I stared at where the blood stained my hands, unable to bear the sensation of her cold skin. It was as though I had really done it, and before I could think or stop myself, I had dashed out of my room. My bare feet padding down the corridors made the only sound in the night, but it mattered little who heard me. I didn’t need to see to recognize her door, and I heaved it open, surprising her with my ragged condition and heavy breathing.

“Professor?” her words were music to me, gentle and composed of all the things I loved in this world. It was nothing out of the ordinary for her to be fussing with paperwork in the late hours, but even so, I found myself so overwhelmed by joy in seeing her looking so naturally that I nearly cried. “Professor, what’s—

I interrupted her. She had barely taken in the breath to speak when I threw my arms around her, taking in all her sensations to replace the horrors I had just witnessed in my sleep. The smell of her hair replaced the blood, her delicate yet firm body did not wilt in my embrace and she was so wonderfully warm.

I couldn’t form words—I didn’t want to.

“You don’t have to tell me what this is about.” Her tone was calming and gentle, for she knew there was nearly nothing that could make her professor crumble. I silently praised her sharpness. I _didn’t_ want to tell her. I _couldn’t_ tell her. I did not want to cast into reality the story I had just experienced.

“You will always be safe with me,” I said with my face buried in her hair. I kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then the bridge of her nose. “No matter which path I might’ve tread, there will never be a version of me that would not give their life for you.”

Her smile was greater than the candle trying to fill the darkness in my room. As powerful as they were when I awoke, the visceral remnants of the nightmare left me as she praised my words and smiled. “I am truly happy that you, in all your would-be lives, would still choose to be my teacher.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just beat the game doing BE route and even the idea of killing El makes me sad and not want to play any other route. This was an angst fueled arrow of inspiration that pierced me at 1:30am so it's short and painful as all things should be. Probably won't write anymore in the future since it's been like 8000 years since my last post.


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